Amazon with headquarters in Seattle, Washington, invited economic development officials, government leaders and investors to offer the giant online retailer the perfect site to locate its second company headquarters somewhere in North America.

According to Amazon the company expects to invest over $5 billion in construction and grow this second headquarters to include as many as 50,000 high-paying jobs. In addition to Amazon's direct hiring and investment, construction and ongoing operation of Amazon HQ2 is expected to create tens of thousands of additional jobs and tens of billions of dollars in additional investment in the surrounding community.

Amazon is opening the Amazon HQ2 Request for Proposal now, and local and state government leaders interested in learning more about how they can bring Amazon to their community can visit www.amazon.com/amazonHQ2.

Amazon's Seattle headquarters, which has more than 40,000 associates, comprises 8.1 million square feet in a 33 building campus. In 2010 the cost of buildings and infrastructure to establish the Seattle campus was $3.7 billion.

"We expect HQ2 to be a full equal to our Seattle headquarters," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon Founder & CEO. "Amazon HQ2 will bring billions of dollars in up-front and ongoing investments, and tens of thousands of high-paying jobs. We're excited to find a second home."

In choosing the location for HQ2, Amazon said it has a preference for; a metropolitan area with more than one million people, a stable and business-friendly environment, an urban or suburban locations with the potential to attract and retain strong technical talent and communities that think big and creatively when considering locations and real estate options.

HQ2 could be, but does not have to be; an urban or downtown campus, a similar layout to Amazon's Seattle campus, or a development-prepped site.

“We want to encourage states and communities to think creatively for viable real estate options, while not negatively affecting our preferred timeline. Amazon HQ2 will be a complete headquarters for Amazon, not a satellite office."